


Side Blue

by orphan_account



Category: Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-12-28
Updated: 2012-01-12
Packaged: 2017-10-28 08:38:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/305992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An accidental encounter lands Joe in an alternate world. Many things are the same here as in his own world, but it's the differences that matter. He's about to come face-to-face with a ghost he'd thought long gone...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Rude Awakening

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Soaring High, The Crushing Down](https://archiveofourown.org/works/228489) by [butyoumight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/butyoumight/pseuds/butyoumight). 



> Right, so. First story on the archive. Blame butyoumight for this in some extent, even though we've never spoken, since it was her story that got the plot bunnies nibbling at my brain. Still, I'm taking things in a slightly different direction, all things considered, so...enjoy.

Joe opened his eyes, glimpsed the bright blue walls of his own cabin, and closed them again with a pained groan. Angry fists pounded against the walls of his skull. He lifted a hand and felt bandages, clean and dry, wrapped around his forehead and temples and tucked behind his ears.

What happened? Joe pushed through the pain to try to remember. He'd gotten up this morning. Trained. Ate breakfast. Played cards with Luka. And gone down to the surface with Ahim to buy the groceries Doc needed for dinner. And then…

An attack. It had been a Zangyack Action Commander, more flamboyant than most, who'd launched an attack on the Galleon itself. It had a weapon of some kind – a gun, twisted and white – that let him move things, creatures, people, from one point in space to another. And he'd been quick, agile, clambering up into the Galleon's riggings and laughing like a madman.

Joe sat up in bed, pinching the bridge of his nose, dragging the most recent memories to the surface. He remembered climbing the ratlines with sword in hand to catch the intruder. He remembered a snap, then the cold rush of air as the lines broke from under him. He remembered falling. Gai had shouted at him to transform, to save himself, and he'd gotten his morbirate in hand and had been turning the key when…

There'd been light, bright white and fiery, nothing like the cool blue that enveloped him when he transformed. Everything had gone fuzzy, and then the deck had been rushing up at him again. He'd struck it, hard. Unprotected. His head made contact, broken the skin. He remembered blood. And then nothing.

" _Well,"_ he thought, lowering his hands.  _"That would explain the head wound."_

Before he could gather any more thoughts, he heard the door open, followed by a gasp, and the rattling of a tea tray. "Ahh!" cried a familiar voice. "You're awake!"

Joe opened one eye. The light and bright colors were more bearable now, and he could see Doc, standing in the open doorway with Ahim's tea tray in hand. However, it did not carry the usual assortment of cups and kettles, and was instead filled with bottles of pills, rolls of bandages, and other first aid supplies.

Doc hurriedly deposited these things on the bedside table and reached for Joe's shoulders with a kind but somewhat hesitant smile. "You shouldn't move around too much. You've been out for quite a while already, and we don't know what the extent of the damage is…"

"I'm fine," Joe said, twitching away from Doc's touch. "I've had worse."

"Oh…have you?" Doc gave a small chuckle, which sounded oddly forced. There was something strange about the way he was acting, as though Joe were a bomb that no one knew exactly how to set off. "That's good to know, but you should still stay in bed. Here. Drink this, and I'll go get…"

"Hold it, Doc."

As Joe's hand closed around the glass of water, he and Doc glanced up at Marvelous, who strode into the room in an ill temper with his arms crossed over his chest. He scowled at Joe viciously for a moment before demanding, "You. Who the hell are you, and what are you doing on my ship?"

Normally, Joe kept careful control over his emotions, but Marvelous's words came at such a shock that he couldn't stop his jaw from falling open. "What?"

"Marvelous," Doc began, half-pleading with their captain. "He only just woke up, and we don't know how much damage that blow to the head did, so we shouldn't…"

Marvelous tugged his arm out of the mechanic's grip, sending Doc stumbling to the door. The glare he leveled at Joe never changed. "Well?" he demanded.

Joe's head began to pound again, and he furled his brow as much to stem the pain as he did out of confusion. Groaning, he put a hand to his head. "This isn't the time for games…"

"I'm not playing around!" Marvelous snapped. "Who are you?"

Confusion and pain finally sparked off into anger, like a gas leak going up with a match. "Dammit Marvelous," he said testily, "you  _know_  who I am!"

"Mou?" said Luka, who had appeared in the door and now stood with her head cocked curiously to one side. "So you know this guy, Marvelous?"

"Not you too, Luka…" Joe groaned, holding his head in his hands. If his head hadn't been hurting so much, Joe might have thrown his hands up in disgust. What the hell was going on? Why were his friends, his  _crewmates_ , doing this to him right after a major head injury? What kind of sick prank was this?

Apparently, it was one that wasn't over yet, because all three of them – Marvelous, Luka, and Doc – turned to stare at him in varying degrees of shock. Doc was clutching at his jacket as though having some sort of a heart attack, looking between Luka and Joe with wide eyes and a slack jaw. And Marvelous's glare had fallen away, revealing an expression of confusion and surprise beneath the mask.

"How did you know her name?" he demanded, more slowly and with more trepidation.

Joe groaned again. "Marvelous…"

"Doc said my name when I came in, but none of us mentioned Luka. So how did you know?"

"You introduced us," said Joe through his teeth. "Over a year ago, when you brought her on the ship."

For a moment, he entertained the idea that this was just their crazy way of checking for amnesia, but the looks on all their faces threw that right out the window. None of them, not even Marvelous, knew who Joe was. Marvelous's mouth was opening and closing, as though he had something he wanted to say, but before he could get it out Ahim's voice came from the hall. "What's going in there?"

"Sleeping beauty woke up," Luka said, still watching Joe with trepidation. "And he's acting weird."

"What? Let me through!"

Joe started in surprise. That voice. He knew that voice, and it didn't belong to Ahim, but there was no way it could be here. The was no way that  _he_  could be here. But there he was.

A tall figure in blue pushed his way through the door and to Marvelous's side. He was at least a decade older than any of them, his short-cropped black hair streaked with white, and there was a long scar on his left cheek. The scar was unfamiliar, but everything else – his eyes, his stance, his hair, his presence – was one that Joe could never forget.

"Sid-sempai…"


	2. Strangers and Suspicions

" _Who is he?"_

 ___Sid Bamick stirred for the first time in over an hour, lifting his head from the still figure in his bed to blink blurrily up at his captain as though coming out of a dream. Marvelous had never seen his first mate so distracted, so distant, or looking so lost._

 _From the moment he set foot upon the Gokai Galleon, Sid had been the only real constant in Marvelous's life. He'd been a reliable partner, a devoted first mate, and a dear friend. As their numbers grew he took on the role of mentor, schooling their new arrivals in the arts of combat and swordplay while providing the sort of insight and wisdom that could only come from ten extra years of experience. And, as Gokai Blue, he'd proven such a thorn in the side of the hated Zangyack empire that his bounty was nearly as much as the one offered for Marvelous himself._

 _But now, he hesitated. Started to speak, then stopped. Let his eyes wander, as though contemplating a lie. And frowned._

 _Marvelous glared down at the one who'd started all this unsettling change, the young man with the long raven hair who'd fallen out of the sky that morning, knocked himself silly on the Galleon's deck, and been dead to the world ever since. Sid went white as a sheet the first time he'd him, as though he'd laid eyes on a ghost rather than an intruder. He'd practically begged Doc to patch the boy up, then insisted that the stranger be kept in his own cabin, the first mate's quarters, where he'd remained ever since. He hadn't even moved when Ahim called him for lunch, and he'd sat completely still for a full ten minutes without noticing Marvelous's presence._

 _All because of one stranger._

" _Who is he?" Marvelous demanded again, when Sid took too long to respond._

 _Sid sighed. "Marvelous…"_

" _Who is he, Sid? You're acting strange and I want to know why." Marvelous crossed his arms over his chest and set his jaw, glaring down at his seated first mate intently. "Who is he to you?"_

 _Sid leaned his elbows onto his knees and, for a moment, Marvelous thought that he wasn't going to reply. Then Sid sighed and said, "His name is Joe Gibken. He is…was…a student of mine."_

" _Student?" Marvelous echoed dumbly. When had Sid had the time to take students?_

" _In the army."_

 _It clicked. Cold horror slipped into Marvelous's stomach. "You mean Zangyack. He's one of them!"_

" _ **No.**_ _" Sid growled the world, cutting Marvelous off. The older man's hands shook while he clasped them, but whether it was from anger, sorrow, or fear, Marvelous couldn't tell. "Joe would never go back to them, ever. Hell, he's the reason that I…I…"_

 _He stopped, clicked his jaw shut, and took a deep breath through his nose. Heaving a sigh, he raked his hands through silver-streaked hair and peered up between his wrists. "I will tell you everything, Marvelous," he said steadily. "I promise, I will. Just not now. I need to think first. Please."_

 _It took everything that Marvelous had to reign in his most childish instincts. He wanted to complain. He wanted to throw a fit. He wanted to drag Sid bodily from the room, shake him, and demand that he spill everything, now, before Marvelous tossed his so-called 'student' overboard into the street._

 _But Marvelous was the captain, and he had to show some decorum, even when he didn't want to._

 _So he reigned in his instincts, gave a great huff, and snapped, "Fine," before storming out of the room. Slamming the door made him feel better, but only slightly._

 

 **( - )**

 **  
**

"Sid-sempai…"

Sid stood frozen beside the bed, one hand still grasping Marvelous's coat, staring down at Joe with wide eyes. Joe, his mind filled only with the white noise of an unregistered shock, stared back. Doc, Luka, and Ahim – who had appeared in the door – watched them apprehensively, barely daring to breathe. Marvelous continued to glare.

A moment later, Sid sank onto the bed, put his arms around Joe, and hugged him with a deep sigh of relief. "Joe. How do feel?

"I…Fine. I'm fine," said Joe. His arms were numb and would not respond to his commands. "Sempai…what is this? What's going on?"

Sid's arms tightened a bit protectively. "You've been unconscious for almost an entire day. Head injury. But you're awake now, so…"

"That's not what I mean!"

Finally, Joe's arms responded to his demands, shoving Sid's chest to push him away. Joe climbed out of the bed and backed away until his back hit the blue-painted wall. He pressed against it like a cornered animal, his eyes darting from Sid, who remained on the bed with a look of surprise, and the rest of the crew.

Joe took several deep breaths, trying to get his racing heart under control, but his mind was too panicked and confused to reign it in. "What the hell is going on here?" he demanded in a whisper. "This can't be…it's not possible. Sempai, how are you here?"

"Joe, please," pleaded Sid, standing. "You shouldn't be up yet."

He reached out, but Joe pressed back against the wall to prevent anyone from getting any closer. Hesitantly, Sid withdrew his hand.

Ahim stepped into the room, laying a hand on Sid's arm.. "Sid-san…"

Joe's eyes snapped to her. "Ahim…you know him?"

The princess looked momentarily surprised at being addressed so casually and, with a sinking heart, Joe knew that she didn't know him any more than Luka or Marvelous had. After a moment, she recovered and drew herself up regally. "Yes, of course I do. Sid-san is a dear friend."

There were many things about his past that Joe didn't like to discuss. Like Luka and Marvelous, he'd tried hard to put the sadness of his past behind him, and he didn't think that his crewmates needed to be burdened by the knowledge either. He knew that, while she may have heard the name, he had never discusses Sid with Ahim. Not once in their entire lives.

Joe sank against the wall, his head thumping back against light plaster. "Ahim knows Sempai," he muttered to himself, trying to fit the pieces together. "But Marvelous doesn't know me. How is this…"

"Oy," Marvelous snapped. "It's Captain Marvelous to you. Who the hell do you think you are, addressing me so casually?"

Joe stared at him, dumbstruck. "Who am I?" he repeated. How could he have to explain this, to Marvelous of all people? Shaking, he reached into his coat pocket, clutched his morbirate and the Gokai Blue Ranger Key, and held them out at arm's length. "This is who I am, Marvelous. You gave me this. You know me."

Marvelous's eyes widened until Joe could see the bright blue of the Ranger Key reflected in his pupils. The captain snapped his head around and said, "Sid."

Sid, without taking his eyes from Joe, reached into his back pocket, then held out his hand. Clutched between his fingers was a morbirate and the Gokai Blue Ranger Key.

The cabin fell silent. Each set of eyes looked between the two morbirates and Ranger Keys, searching for imperfections, differences, a hint of duplication or counterfeit. There was none. The two sets were identical, down to the last scratch.

"No way," said Luka, voicing all of their thoughts. "That's impossible."

Joe's head began to spin. He managed to stuff his morbirate away before the cabin floor pitched beneath him. Doc caught his arm, steadied him, and dragged him back to sit on the bed. "You shouldn't be jumping up like that! You might have a concussion. Come on…it's time to change the bandages on that wound anyway."

Joe settled onto the bed without complaint, staring at his feet to avoid looking at anyone. He heard Sid take in a breath as though he wanted to say something, but the words never came and, to Joe's relief, Sid didn't try to reach for him again. He felt the others' eyes on him for a long while, all except for Doc, who was busying himself with the tray of medical supplies. Finally, Marvelous tossed his head and huffed.

"Sid," he said. "Outside. Now."

Sid hesitated only a moment, then obeyed his captain's orders, leading the way out of the room. Ahim, Marvelous, and Luka followed him, the cabin door swinging shut in their wake and leaving Joe alone, with only Doc and the silence to tend to his wound.


End file.
